It is widely recognized that organic devices offer major opportunities for the construction of large area circuits, due in large part to their relatively low processing costs and their compatibility with various substrates. One such device is the organic transistor, or more specifically, the organic triode. Potential applications for organic transistors include large area active matrix displays, particularly those using organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), and data storage devices, such as smart cards.
While a number of organic triode structures have been proposed, each has its shortcomings. For example, organic triode (or more generally organic transistor) structures are proposed in Yang, “A new architecture for polymer transistors,” Letters to Nature vol. 372 p. 344 (November 1994); U.S. Pat. No. 5,563,424 to Yang (Uniax Corp.); McElvain, “An analytic model for the polymer grid triode;” J. App. Phys. 80(8) p. 4755 (October 1996); McElvain, “Fullerene-based polymer grid triodes,” J. App. Phys. 81(9) p. 6468 (May 1997); Kudo, “Schottky gate static induction transistor using copper phthalocyanine films,” Thin Solid Films 331 (1998) 51-54; Wang, “Device Characteristics of Organic Static Induction Transistor Using Copper Phthalocyanine Films and Al Gate Electrode,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 38 (1999) Pt. 1, No. 1A p. 256; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,563,424 to Yang. However, these structures generally have one or more problems associated with them, such as a requirement of high resolution lithography, high operating voltages (such as high gate voltage swings required to fully turn off drain current, or high base voltages required to create a suitable electric field), low number of on/off cycles, low gain, significant leakage from the grid.